as these, can no more be said to acknowledge themselves guilty of a fault, than a man that was born blind, or lame, with the stone or gout, can accuse himself with any fault for being born so: well may such an one complain, and bemoan himself, and say, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this unhappiness? But such a complaint is as far from being a true acknowledgment of any faults, as a bare acknowledgment of a fault is from true repentance. For, to confess a fault, is to acknowledge, that freely and willingly, without any constraint, or unavoidable necessity, we have transgressed the law of God, it being in our power, by God's grace, to have done otherwise. To aggravate this fault, is to confess we have done so when we might easily have avoided it, and had no great nor violent temptation to it: to pretend any great difficulty in the matter, is to excuse and extenuate it: but to say, that, all things considered, it was absolutely impossible for you to avoid it, is flatly to deny it. Others there are, that think they have done enough, if to confession of sin they add some sorrow for it; if, when the present fit of sin is past, and they are returned to themselves, the sting remaining breed some remorse of conscience, some complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so, and some intentions to forsake it, though vanishing and ineffectual. These heat-drops, this morning dew of sorrow, though it presently vanish, and they return to their sin again upon the next temptation, "as a dog to his vomit," when the pang is over; yet in the pauses between, while they are in their good mood, they conceive themselves to have very

true, and very good repentance; so that if they should have the good fortune to be taken away in one of these intervalla, one of these sober moods, they should certainly be saved; which is just as if a man in a quartan ague, or the stone, or gout, should think himself rid of his disease as oft as he is out of his fit.

But if repentance were no more but so, how could St. Paul have truly said, that "godly sorrow worketh repentance?" (2 Cor. vii. 10.) Every man knows, that nothing can work itself. The architect is not the house which he builds, the father is not the son which he begets, the tradesman is not the work which he makes; and therefore, if sorrow, godly sorrow, worketh repentance, certainly sorrow is not repentance. The same St. Paul tells us in the same place, that "the sorrow of the world worketh death;" and you will give me leave to conclude from hence, therefore it is not death; and what shall hinder me from concluding thus also; "godly sorrow worketh repentance," therefore it is not repentance?

To this purpose it is worth observing, that when the Scripture speaks of that kind of repentance, which is only sorrow for something done, and wishing it undone, it constantly useth the word μerauéλeia, to which forgiveness of sins is nowhere promised. So it is written of Judas, the son of perdition, (Matt. xxvii. 5.) μɛraueλnμεταμεληOεis árérρave," he repented, and went and hanged θεὶς ἀπέτρεψε, himself," and so constantly in other places. But that repentance, to which remission of sins and salvation are promised, is perpetually expressed by the word μETávola, which signifies a thorough change of the heart and soul, of the life and ac

tions, Μετανοεῖτε ἤγγικε γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, (Matt. iii. 2.) which is rendered in our last translation, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But much better, because freer from ambiguity, in the entrance to our Common Prayer Book, "Amend your lives, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." From hence, by the way, we may observe, that in the judgment of those holy and learned martyrs, repentance and amendment of life are all one: and I would to God, the same men, out of the same care of avoiding mistakes, and to take away occasion of cavilling our liturgy from them that seek it, and out of fear of encouraging carnal men to security in sinning, had been so provident, as to set down in terms the first sentence taken out of Ezek. xviii. and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous, and (though not in itself, yet accidentally, by reason of the mistake to which it is subject) I fear very often a pernicious paraphrase: for whereas thus they make it, "At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance, saith the Lord;" the plain truth, if you will hear it, is, the Lord doth not say so, these are not the very words of God, but the paraphrase of men: the words of God are as follow: "If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die ;" where I hope, you easily observe, that there is no such word as, "At what time soever

a sinner doth repent," &c. And that there is a wide difference between this (as the word repent usually sounds in the ears of the people) and

turning from all sins, and keeping all God's statutes; that indeed, having no more in it but sorrow and good purposes, may be done easily and certainly at the last gasp, and it is very strange, that any Christian, who dies in his right senses, and knows the difference between heaven and hell, should fail of the performing it; but this work of turning, keeping, and doing, is (though not impossible by extraordinary mercy to be performed at last,) yet ordinarily a work of time, a long and laborious work (but yet heaven is very well worth it); and, if you mean to go through with it, you had need go about it presently. Yet seeing the composers of our Liturgy thought fit to abbreviate-turning from all sin, and keeping all God's statutes, and doing that which is lawful and right, into this one word, repenting, it is easy and obvious to collect from hence, as I did before from the other place, that by repentance, they understood not only sorrow for sin, but conversion from it. The same word, μerávola, (Matt. xii. 41.) is used in speaking of the repentance of the Ninevites: and, how real, hearty, and effectual a conversion that was, you may see, Jonah iii. from the fifth to the last verse: "The people of Nineveh believed God, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them; for word came from the King of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he cast his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes; and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh, by the decree of the King, and of his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let man and

beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way, and from the violence which is in their hands: who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away his fierce anger, that we perish not?"

Which words contain an excellent and lively pattern for all true penitents to follow, and whereunto to conform themselves in their humiliation and repentance. And truly, though there be no Jonah sent expressly from God to cry unto us, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed;" yet seeing the mouth of eternal Truth hath taught us, that a kingdom divided is in such danger of ruin and destruction, that, morally speaking, if it continue divided, it cannot stand; and seeing the strange and miserable condition of our nation at this time may give any considering man just cause to fear, that as in Rehoboam's case, so likewise in ours, "the thing is of the Lord," in tending to bring his heavy judgment upon us, for our great sins, and our stupid and stupendous security in sinning, and to make us instruments of his designed vengeance, one upon another; peradventure, it would be a seasonable and necessary motion to be made to our King and his nobles— To revive this old proclamation of the King of Nineveh, and to send it with authority through his Majesty's dominions, and to try whether it will produce some good effect: "Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" Who can tell, whether he that hath the hearts of King and people in his hand, and turneth them whithersoever he thinketh best, may not upon our repentance take our extremity for his opportunity, and at last